DAME Kelly Holmes dominated the Norwich Union British Grand Prix at the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield, despite jogging home in eighth place in her final track race on home soil, writes who was in the crowd.

A packed stadium was treated to a spectacular arrival by Army helicopter – Holmes is proud of her career as a soldier – followed by all the pomp and circumstance duly afforded to the double Olympic champion who is nearing the end of a momentous career.

A decent run in her final race would have been the icing on the cake but an achilles injury restricted her so much that all but one of the domestic field in the 800m race swept past despite the exhortations of 18,000 expectant fans.

Few will remember that Jenny Meadows from Wigan won the race in a relatively pedestrian 2mins 3.43secs as Dame Kelly limped across the finish line in 2mins 6.69secs, more than 10 seconds outside her own British record.

The meeting ended with confetti cannons, fireworks, presentations, interviews, both improvised and planned laps of honour and more emotion than Holmes could handle as her voice trembled over the PA system while thanking everyone for their support.

It was a remarkable finale to a meeting held in superb sunshine at the venue where Holmes had raced to a British record 1500m time of 3mins 58.07secs in 1997, a time she was to trim by 17 hundredths of a second in Athens for an historic Olympic gold after having already bagged the 800m title.

Career highlights:

Dame Kelly was born in Pembury on April 19, 1970 and was raised in Hildenborough where she went to school.

After tasting early success with two English Schools 1500m titles she joined the Army at 18 years of age and became the Army judo champion.

In an international athletics career spanning 13 years she has gained 27 international selections and has won 12 major medals making her the most successful female athlete in Great Britain.

The gold medal trail began at the 1994 Commonwealth Games 1500m in Victoria, a title she was to regain on home soil at Manchester.

Her historic exploits in the Athens Olympics last year bring her tally of gold medals to six and there are also seven silver and four bronze medals that have had to be declared to Customs officials around the world.

Career highlights must include against the odds efforts such as her stunning bronze medal in the Sydney Olympic Games 800m, when she had not even expected to make the team due to a series of injuries, and her surprise silver behind world number one Maria Mutola in the Paris World Championships of 2003.